I'm a resident of Ottawa, Canada and today we are receiving a very special visitor today. President Obama is coming to meet with our Prime Minister and I thought some of you would like to know the back ground of the meeting and how the city has prepared for his visit.
Here is a link to an article which discusses much of what I'm describing.
http://www.cbc.ca/...
First off Traffic is going to be terrible for us driving to work (I came in early). We have 10 cms of new snow down and more falling during the morning and many major roads are closed. Obama will be driving by Ottawa's famous Rideau Canal where he will catch a glimpse of some Canadian's skating to work down the canal.
On the agenda for his meeting today with our Minority Prime Minister is economics, Afghanistan and the environment (in that order).
Stephen Harper has the title but more left wing parties control the seats in the parliament. The centerist Liberals did poorly in the last election and are scared to call a new election with a new leader and so soon after there loses. SO basically things are fairly stable. The conservatives can't go crazy because that will unite the opposition but the opposition can't reach to far because an election could give the conservatives a majority (they have more cash on hand, some okay polling).
The economy, we have the best banking system in the G20, our banks are still fairly solid though taking losses, our biggest concern is our manufacturing sector which is slowing down fast. Therefore buy America provisions that effect our manufacturing is of big concern. Remember when starting to discuss this topic Canada provides the states with much of it's hydro, oil and water.....some very key exports for you guys from a very stable country. We feel like we shouldn't be getting the shaft basically since we have NAFTA etc etc.
Afghanistan, well we have support our mission there till 2011, though we want more support from other NATO allies.....Canadian troops are in some of the most dangerous area's taking caualities and we would like Obama to help in that respect with other nations.
Environment, we don't expect much from Obama on this issue because our own Prime Minister is a right wing conservative from an oil producing province. Though something may be signed on this topic.
Anyway that's my run down, I'll be checking back to answer any questions in comments!